All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Don, 

Good to see people of our generation with drive for success. 

I can not agree more with you about college and debt. I was in your shoes 6 year ago and was not about to spend that kind of money just because everyone else was. However I was offered an opportunity for my tuition to be paid so I went and finished in 3 years so I could go chase my passion. Looking back I don't regret going but I defiantly would not go If it was on my money. I believe time is equally as important as education. When investing Time=money. Start young and it will only help your growth. That is not to say just because you have lots of time you can recklessly invest. Learn fast and invest smart and time will take care of the rest. 

Money is Defiantly difficult in the begging. I was 18 when I first began in REI. I convinced my dad to cosign on a house which I rehabbed lived in and rented to 5 friends during my three years of college. I lived rent free and cash flowed $300 a month. I have been in your shoes at your age in cincinnati. I didn't know how to raise capital so I worked harder and saved. I now own 8 houses outright and now am leveraging all that equity to purchase more. I tell you this to motivate you. It can be done, and it can be done much better than I did it. I choose a slow hard path of saving and paying all of my own cash. Try to raise capital other ways and it will guarantee faster growth if done correctly.

I have yet to flip a house I am buy and hold investor. I still consider my self a beginner but have started in the same spot you are now. If I can help in any way I would be happy to. BP is great just don't get too overwhelmed. find your focus and make things happen. 

Good luck!

Jered

Hello, 

I have started to do drive for dollars. I am attempting to create a list of 1000 distressed properties in my farm area. 

My question is does anyone have any technology or suggestions to make this process more efficent? I currently use a google sheet to keep track of all the addresses this way I can update from my phone then mail merge to a google docs letter template once I fill out owner info from auditors site ( I may have a VA do this filling in of data once I figure out the best process).

My main issue is keeping track of the areas I have already hit. Does anyone know of an app or something that you can cross off street you have drove. If there is nothing more soffiticated than print screen shots of google maps and highlighting the areas I have drove I will just do that. 

This is my first crack at direct marketing so any suggestions would be fantastic. 

Thanks in advance!

Jered

Joseph, 

I am not a realtor. Every market is different in how a home is optimally marketed. Obviously a 2 million dollar house won't sell from craigslist and a 10K house won't have a lunch for the area brokers to come view.

 However What I would do is put your self in the shoes of the buyer. Try to find your home with out knowing the address. look on Zillow and other sites average buyers maybe using. If your house shows up, I would say there is issues outside of marketing. Most of the time the issue will be price. If this is the case get second and third opinions from other realtors on your list price. 

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Jered

@Brandon Turner, Thank you.  I am Honored! 

@Craig C. & any other new landlord I have been tinkering with a way to remove ANY chance discrimination from screening while also helping me make the best tenant choice. I do this because one day I will hand my screening off to someone less careful or some form of automation and I do not want a lawsuit. I haven't put this into action yet in my business because I keep tweaking the weights to fit my needs just right.  I also have it in a spreadsheets so i type in the variables and out pops an accept or reject. If I have multiable qualified applicants It will be very easy for me to decide because the high score wins. 

Remember this is just an example and the scores only fit for my market and my strategy.  I think It's a good place to start creating your own if you like the idea. 

I included a link if the pic is too blurry. 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7ikX8iyfgFEczl1UDR2WlhRMmM/edit

Chris, 

I use google drive. Google drive has in it google sheets google docs and google forms, This is cloud based. I create a form with street address owner name and mailing address as columns. When i am out driving and see a distressed home I pull up the google sheets app on my phone add in the address and it then is updated on my laptop at home. After i get a large list I mail merge the sheets data to a google doc template that is my direct marketing letter. 

This way I only have to type the info one time. I type it in when I first see the house. The rest is automated all the way till I print the letter and put it in the mail. 

Good luck!

I would not listen to the landlords you spoke to apart from this quote "The quality of your property is the quality of your tenate".

Raising the rent with no extra value to the tenant will only cause them to leave once they realize they are over paying. This will cause much higher vacancy rates which in turn will cost you more than the unjustified 10-15% rent increase.

If you buy a really nice property you are more likely to get a better tenant. However myself and 1000s of other investors are willing to take on the risk of lower and middle grade properties for the higher returns. 

everyone preaches screen screen screen and I agree that is half of the picture. the other half is in the management. Think of it this way, your tenants are like children. Children's behaviors are formed from nature(genetics) and nurture(how their raised). You can screen a quality tenant and accept them but if you don't  manage well and let little things slide more often then not the great tenant will slowly take advantage of your leniency and lack of structure. Screening is vital but it is not the only step. 

Be careful of your screening practices "hooligan" is not a protected class but the people you label as hooligans may be.  

@Brandon turner says it better than I ever could in this post:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/01/27/tenant-screening/

In the past I have used a family friend who is an attorney not specializing in RE. Now that my business is growing I want to form a long lasting relationship with a RE attorney in the cincinnati Ohio area. Any recommendations for RE attorneys that have experience when working with REI will be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance, 

Jered Sturm 

Ok, So I have looked to see if anyone has brought this idea up and I have yet to find it mentioned. I am a SFR buy and hold investor. I was buying off the MLS because the numbers were working. The numbers stopped working so I have to now market to motivated sellers. I am doing drive for dollars with letters to the distressed properties owners.

Another Idea I had is use my own renters as acquisition agents on the ground to go find me deals. I was thinking that if I CLOSED a deal refereed to me through a tenant that tenant will receive one months rent free. My average rent is $925.00. Is this a high referral fee? I have no idea what a normal finders or referral fee would look like. I just know one months free rent will get a lot of people working hard to get a house in my hands. 

One disadvantage I see to this is tenants will realize the low prices I buy houses for. Houses just like the one they live in themselves and pay a not so low rent( in their mind). Even with this Im thinking this may be a creative marketing strategy that could pay off. 

I will still need to look over the numbers and decide if this is financially wise for my business.

If anyone has attempted this or would like to speculate on if it would work I am open to your thoughts. 

Thanks much!

Jered 

@DL Martin 

Thank you for the post.

As I mentioned in the OP I am very new to the lending process as a whole. I actually have a better grasp on private lending strategy over conventional lending. 

"Just remember the financed properties rule that Fannie has." Can you elaborate on this for me?

"If you want to get 5-10 you'll have to refinance the properties with six months of purchasing the home. This is called delayed financing and it works great as long as you meet all the guides and do it in less than 6 months from the purchase date." - You mention the guides, What are they? I have a feeling with my Income I will never make it to 5 conventional loans so it will be up to me to find an alternate. Dl martin mentioned portfolio lenders above. I actually meet with several after calling SOOO many small banks. One was willing to extend an offer to me  15 year fixed w/ 10year ballon @ 7%. Pretty good, But the cash out refis are much better 30 year fixed @5%. 

I have a feeling after taking the cash out refis the portfolio lender option will no longer exist. So that is why I have spent a lot of time researching private lending & also seller financing. I think If I mix those strategies with the cash out refis I may be able to take my 200-300K from cash out refis  and stretch it into many more properties.  

Does this sound like a good/feasible strategy? Do you agree that with the additional debt service of the cash out refis the portfolio lender will no longer consider my loan app?

Jered

Jean, 

If the wood has been painted you can not stain it. Paint makes a thin layer on top of the wood while stain sinks into the pores of the wood. If the wood had previously been painted the existing paint will keep the new stain from sinking into the pores. 

Transparent stain does sink into the wood it just has much more dye or pigment added to it to simple change the color of the wood.

It is hard with out seeing if your deck currently has stain or paint. If it is chipping It is most likely paint. There are several types of cover ups for very warn decks such as restore or deck over at home depot. From the little I know about your deck I would suggest those. 

I would rent  a pressure washer. This will save you time rather than scraping and will give you a much better prepped surface for  the new. 

Hope that helps!

Jered